The Art Investment Fund of White's Bank, now headed by Tim Simpson, is after a Whistler. Very privately, of course, for these days Tim is peacefully ensconced in the City, getting on with his little bit of banking and trying to stay out of trouble.

Unfortunately Tim attracts trouble as a jam-pot does wasps. Even when he is in the company of the charming Sue Westerman of the Tate Gallery, a quiet expedition in quest of a couple of Whistlers ends in violence. As a result, it looks as though all hope of tracing these unrecorded paintings is lost. But that is to reckon without Tim.

His researches take him into the relationships of the Whistler family and their problems in building railroads in Russia and the States. However, the presence in London of the vice-president of a Chicago bank is a source of some anxiety to Tim: is he perhaps too interested in Whistlers for Tim's good?

Tim decides to visit the quiet resort of Hastings with its artistic connections. After avoiding the dangers that lurk for him there, d Tim finally learns the fate of the missing paintings - and who his opponent really is.

Once again John Malcolm, operating within his chosen worlds of merchant banking and fine arts, provides his readers with a thrilling mystery which is also 'an information-packed delight' (The Times).